News

Plane with first coffins of MH17 victims leaves Ukraine

MH17:People carry a coffin containing the remains of one of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 downed over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine before loading it on a transport plane heading towards the Netherlands at Kharkiv airport July 23. Photo: Reuters

KHARKIV Ukraine (Reuters) – A Dutch air force transport plane carrying the first 16 coffins with the remains of victims of the downed Malaysian airliner took off on Wednesday from an airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv for the Netherlands.

Honorary guards placed wooden coffins on the plane after a short and somber ceremony held on the tarmac before it took off.

All 298 people on board the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 perished when it was brought down last Thursday over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev is struggling to quell a pro-Russian separatist rebellion.